BRIGHT young things from Dorchester’s Thomas Hardye School are attending a prestigious international event in Paris this week.

A delegation from the county town school and the University of Southampton received a special invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the International Year of Light and Light Based Technologies (IYL) event in the French capital.

The IYL is a United Nations initiative aimed to highlight the importance of light and optical technologies in our lives and for our future and is being held at the headquarters of UNESCO today and tomorrow.

Sixth form students Katharine Bennett and Raphael Treccani-Chinelli will be joined by Thomas Hardye School teacher Geoffrey Reader as well as three PhD students from the University of Southampton and staff from its Physics and Astronomy Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC).

The delegation will attend keynote speeches, give demonstrations of their work and promote the university’s excellence in research and education in the field of photonics, the science of light.

Judith Wardlaw, industry partnership manager from the UNESCO-associated Thomas Hardye School, said: “Our students, Katharine Bennett and Raphael Treccani-Chinelli, are both passionate about physics and competed for the honour to act as ambassadors for the school.”

The University of Southampton’s Matt Posner said: “There is a huge sense of excitement for all of us. It will be amazing to hear from Nobel laureates and leaders in the field of photonics.”

The university and Thomas Hardye School will plan follow-up projects involving the distribution of photonics and optical communications science kits to schools across the south.